Best patch for anamorphic filming? I just bought myself a Kowa B&H and want to do some experimenting. I use the FlowMotion patch but looking for a stable hack to shoot anamorphic style. Any advise/experiences? Thanks!

@kclem very interesting diy project!

Hey all,

Been working pretty hard with a Century Anamorphic adapter & various taking lenses. I managed to find a Century with a 58mm thread in mint condition.

I've worked with numerous taking lenses, everything from 50mm down to the Olympus 12 (which is unusable because of the Vignette) .

50mm works great, 37mm mir is great too. Most of my Super Takumar stuff falls apart in the sides & the CA can be horrendous.... especially with a 20mm lens. The Canon FD 20mm 2.8 isn't as bad, but the focus mechanism moves the filter ring (and the attached anamorphic) so forget about pulling focus.
The best taking lens I've used so far with this is the 14-42mm kit lens. It's over-sharp look works wonders with the Century in front of it... the two seem to balance each other out. Unfortunately, to avoid vignetting, it has to be zoomed in to about 25mm. I'm curious as to how the Panasonic 20mm pancake would work.

Close-focus on the Century is outsanding, you can really get in tight with this thing!

I'll have to post a demo reel later this week just to show how everything works.

@kavadni The guy from the link I posted was using crystal wedges normally used for awards but without any engraving. Supposedly they are optically clear and can be purchased here http://www.crystalgiftsengraved.com/standupawards.html (scroll to middle, called "Optic Crystal Wedge Award") and I'm sure many other places. Depending on the size of your front element you might be able to buy 1 and cut it in half.

Another wild idea I had was using a conically shaped mirror. The camera would be pointed 90 degrees more or less from the subject, straight up would probably be best. People often grind their own mirrors for telescope making to incredible specs in their garages, and a conical shape would be an easy shape to achieve. They grind them from glass then deposit vaporized aluminum on them to create the mirror surface. This would probably be too much work for a one off product but the benefit would be no chromatic aberration or other lens created distortions or internal reflections

I had previously been convinced that a few 3D movies from the '80s were shot anamorphic but they weren't. There basically isn't a precedent for 3D anamorphic.

The inter-ocular of the 3D Panasonic lens will likely create very strange distortion with the anamorphic adapter because neither "eye" is down the optical center of the squeeze lens.

You're looking at headache city, if it works at all.

Your intention is academic. The optics are gonna be weird and likely cause unnecessary eye strain. Even with a dual-camera setup and optics properly aligned the risk of creating an uncomfortable image is great enough nobody has done it with anamorphics (yet).

Any flaring would create a sort of depth paradox as well.

Who knows though, you'd have to try it and see if it gives you a headache. Odds are it will but having worked on a few stereo films the brain really wants to reconcile both images into a single coherent scene.

Nobody is questioning whether it's possible. Whether or not you're shooting footage that makes your audience want to scoop out their eyes with a spoon is the question.

None of your experience has anything to do with shooting off-axis through a compressed lens either.

Hello, I just ordered my first lens, Sankor 16C

I'm still doubtful if GH4 or a7s, but since I have the Voigtlander 25mm and slr magic 12mm, I might just go for the gh4 instead of selling the glass and change to Sony. Wait for the GH5! Anyways:

1) What kind of adapter must I buy to put in front of the camera rear? Is there any cheap free-shipping-from-china version I could use for that?

2) What size of Diopters would I need? I heard they can be more expensive than the lens it self! (most likely, lol :p)

3) I've seen people using something called "Hoya +1, +2, +4 (or something like that)". Chromatic something... What does this do to our anamorphic lenses?

4) Why sometimes your videos/stills look "so filmic" in terms of that weird-beautiful distortion you see on the sides/backgrounds. But sometimes, other videos are not so distorted, and just look normal (beautiful, but normal), not with that amazing "vintage effect" anamorphics are known of.

Does it have to do with the aperture you shoot, or...?

Thanks a lot for any help guys :)

@producer, avoid it, it fits more to a smaller sensor like bmpcc... buy an other one

I'm selling five single-focus Bell & Howell 16mm anamorphic adapters in various conditions if anyone is interested:

Lens tests:

More info and pictures at EOSHD: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/8491-for-sale-five-bell-howell-16mm-single-focus-projection-lenses/